Washington, D.C., Jan. 24, 2005 – A new lecture series created by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) begins Tuesday, January 25, and will be aired live by the Voice of America (VOA). The speaker for the opening conference will be former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

The 12 conferences in the series will air monthly, and each will feature a prominent speaker well versed in issues central to countries of all the Americas. Topics to be addressed include the strengthening of democracy, human rights, social development, hemispheric security, and the fight against poverty.

The first conference will focus on “The Promise and Peril of Democracy.” It will be transmitted live at 3:00 p.m. EST / 2000 UTC. The series is made possible by a financial contribution from Peru’s San Martín de Porres University. Downlink information follows:

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 100 million people. Programs are produced in Spanish and 43 other languages.

For more information, please contact VOA's Office of Public Affairs at ph: 202-401-7000 or by e-mail at publicaffairs@voa.gov.